


Numb

by MCUsic_to_my_ears



Series: Whumptober 2019 [14]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Amputation, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, M/M, Phantom Limb Pain, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Whump, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21793816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MCUsic_to_my_ears/pseuds/MCUsic_to_my_ears
Summary: After the Snap, Tony gets phantom pain.***Whumptober 2019 Day 29: Numb
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Whumptober 2019 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1504922
Comments: 10
Kudos: 126
Collections: IronHusbands





	Numb

**Author's Note:**

> Shhhhh time isn't real it's not December shhhh.

“My arm is numb,” Tony announced, settling beside his husband at the kitchen island. 

Rhodey glanced up from his newspaper. “Did you sleep on it funny?” he suggested, pouring a glass of orange juice to the recovering engineer. In the back of his mind, he relished in the mundane problem. One that came matched with an equally mundane solution. After everything that had happened, from alien invasions to shoddy assassination attempts to Thanos’ snap to  _ Tony’s _ snap, Rhodey felt they deserved numb-arm level issues. That was what retirement was for, right?

Tony shook his head. “No, honeybear, my  _ arm _ is numb.” He gestured his cup toward his empty shoulder socket before taking a swig of juice. 

Rhodey cringed at the brashness. Tony’s life had come at the price of his arm, which the engineer was none too happy about. After all, how could he build without hands? 

Secretly, Rhodey was pleased that it had forced his husband to settle down, although he would never admit it. 

“Phantom sensation?” the older man asked. 

Tony shrugged. “Probably. Gonna ask Cho about it.”

“After breakfast,” Rhodey asserted. 

“After breakfast,” Tony agreed. 

***

Peter swung his legs happily from where he sat on the workbench as he waited for his mentor to find the file he was looking for. 

“You could ask FRIDAY,” the young hero suggested. 

Tony scoffed. “I don’t need to ask FRIDAY.” He paused a moment. “No offense, FRI.”

“None taken, boss,” the AI hummed back, halfway to a chuckle. 

The engineer continued his search for a couple more minutes, still insisting that it was a great surprise, just poorly named apparently, when his face scrunched up. 

“Everything alright?” Peter asked, legs stilling as he studied his mentor. 

Tony nodded distractedly. “Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s stupid.” he huffed. 

Peter crossed over to his mentor’s workstation. “What is?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “My elbow itches.”

“Oh.” Peter bit the inside of his cheek. “I, um. I could scratch it for you. If you’d like,” he tacked on awkwardly. 

“Thanks for the offer, Pete.” Tony ruffled the boys hair. “But unless you can perform surgery to reattach my ulnar nerve, you’ll just be hitting air.” 

“Um, I could-”

“It’s a joke, Pete.”

“Right. I knew that.”

“Sure you did,” the older man teased.

“Hey!”

***

“Hey, Stark, think fast!” Clint called from across the kitchen. 

The engineer blinked as the dish towel hit him smack in the face. He sighed. 

“You alright man?”

The engineer nodded, biting his lip. “I’m right handed. So I tried to catch that with my right hand,” he reported, rolling his eyes at himself. 

The archer shuffled awkwardly. 

“But you’re…”

“Yep. Looks like I forgot. Whoops.”

Clint stared at him from across the kitchen. “You’re one hell of a character, Stark.”

“It’s all I strive to be, Hawkass.” Tony swiped the towel up from the floor and tossed it over his shoulder as he left the room, torn between embarrassment and humor. 

***

“Good morning,” Rhodey murmured, rolling over in bed to get a better look at his partner. 

Tony grunted in return, still half asleep. Rhodey chuckled, wrapped his arms around the shorter man. 

Tony hissed in pain. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Rhodey asked, immediately on alert. 

“Mmm.” Tony squeezed his eyes shut. “Arm hurts.”

“Which-?”

“Burns,” he added quickly, clarifying the issue. 

Rhodey smoothed Tony’s hair. “I’ll go get some Advil,” he promised softly. “And I’ll have Pep cancel any plans we had, and we’ll spend the day here, yeah?”

Tony shook his head. “You don’t have to-”

“Uh, uh. I  _ want  _ to. No arguments.”

“Fine,” Tony pouted, although pleased that his husband was going to stay with him. 

***

“And your sure this will work?” Tony asked skeptically. 

Helen nodded. “Mirror therapy has been proven in countless studies with amputated patients.” She gestured to the dining room table, where a mirror dividing two chambers resided. 

“If you say so,” he hummed, settling down in the chair. Rhodey ruffled his ungelled hair sarcastically, causing Tony to swat his hand away before placing his arm inside the left chamber. With the mirror blocking off the right of his field of vision, he couldn’t see where his right arm was supposed to be. Instead, his mind filled in the blank with the mirror. He stretched his left hand as was pleased as he felt the right one uncramp a bit too. 

“Platypus?”

“Yes, dear?”

“I need you to scratch my elbow.”

Rhodey blinked. “What?”

“You heard me.” Tony eyed his intact left arm. “Scratch it, or I will say ‘Bless you’ before you sneeze for the rest of your life.”

Rhodey scratched his husband’s elbow.


End file.
